Trinity Medical Center relocation gains support

The exterior of the site of the proposed Trinity Medical Center on U.S. 280 in Birmingham, Ala., Friday, Sept. 25, 2009. The facility was originally being built as a HealthSouth hospital. (The Birmingham News/ Mark Almond)

Trinity Medical Center should be allowed to relocate
from its current location on Montclair Road to the unfinished
Health-South hospital on U.S. 280, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Administrative law Judge James Hampton decided that Trinity's $280
million project "is consistent with the facility's and the community's
overall health and health-re­lated plans."

Hampton's
recommendation goes to the state Certificate of Need Review Board, which
is expected to consider Trinity's re­quest at its Sept. 15 meeting.
Board mem­bers can still vote against the project, and their decision
either way is subject to legal appeals.

Once the project has the go-ahead, it is expected to take about 18 to 24 months to complete, said Trinity CEO Keith Granger.

"For us, now will not come quick enough," he said. "It will be great
for the de­livery of patient care to those individuals who have been
longing for so long for serv­ices out in the 280 corridor."

Trinity first announced plans to move from its
location in east Birmingham in 2006, when it applied to build a
hospital in Irondale; in 2008, it received state approval for its
plans. Later that year, it abandoned the Irondale site and purchased
the empty HealthSouth hospital on U.S. 280.

To shift its plans to the U.S. 280 site, Trinity
received a pledge of $40 million in financial incentives from the city
of Birmingham over 20 years, plus $15 million going to private
developments on the campus.

The plan to move into the HealthSouth hospital was
opposed by Brookwood Medical Center and St. Vincent's Health System,
which said Trinity could renovate its Montclair site and would unfairly
compete if it moved closer to them.

In his 50-page ruling, Hampton agreed with some of
their arguments. He found that Trinity's relocation "would cause
Brookwood significant financial stress," costing it up to $17 million a
year; it could cost St. Vincent's up to $6.8 million a year. Yet he
said a negative impact on other providers isn't the deciding factor.

"We are disappointed in today's recommendation,"
Brookwood spokeswoman Kelly Taylor said in an emailed statement.
"However, we remain confident in the merits of our case."

Hampton found other problems with Trinity's case.
He pointed out that the 560-bed hospital falls short of the annual 60
percent occupancy rate required by the state health plan for a
replacement hospital to be approved; he suggested that the CON review
board should reduce Trinity's request for 398 beds at the new site by
26 beds.

He also pointed out that the move will close an
often- used 38-bed long-term acute care hospital that Select Specialty
Hospitals runs in space leased from Trinity. When that closes, the
region that includes Jefferson County will have only 45 of those kinds
of beds, although 127 are needed, and there's a federal moratorium on
new ones.

In addition, Hampton pointed out that the hospital
will have to deal with traffic problems on U.S. 280 and its presence
will likely make traffic worse. And he said other hospitals in the area
have dealt with some of the problems Trinity has at Montclair --
outdated buildings, badly designed operating rooms and lack of space --
by renovating in place.

But, overall, he decided, none of those issues is
big enough to block the project. Trinity meets the bulk of the legal
requirements, and its move would fill a hole in hospital services for
south Jefferson and north Shelby counties, he found.

"Less costly, more efficient, more appropriate,
or more effective alternatives to Trinity's relocation project have
been considered and are not feasible," Hampton wrote.